High-tech entertainment on Emirates Airlines

Emirates has become the first airline in the world to introduce an audio-description system for films on its popular ice digital widescreen in-flight entertainment system, to serve its visually impaired passengers.

Emirates’ unique in-flight information, communication and entertainment system ice recently won the “Best Inflight Entertainment System in the World” award at the Skytrax Awards for the tenth year in a row.

The ice system now provides detailed audio-recorded descriptions of 16 of the most popular Disney films including “Frozen”, “Sevening Mr. Banks”, “Cars 2”, “Monsters University”, “Marvel’s The Avengers” and “Toy Story 3” as well as The four parts of the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

The use of audio description is constantly increasing and has become common in cinema and television, and audio comments are recorded to explain the scenes during the periods of silence that permeate the dialogue between the characters in the film, while the audio recording of the film continues in its normal rhythm.

Emirates Airlines worked with Disney in 2007 to become the first airline in the world to introduce the technology of written text on screen, which is ideal for passengers with hearing difficulties, as this technology depends not only on displaying the dialogues of the actors, but also includes reference to the soundtrack and effects Audio used as background in movie scenes.

During the month of August 2014, more than 50 films with text-based technology will be shown on the ice digital widescreen system.

Patrick Branley, Emirates Vice President, Corporate Communications for Products, Publishing, Digital Services and Events, said: “We place great importance on providing the highest levels of entertainment for all our passengers, and that is why we have been keen to develop the entertainment content that we offer on our flights to suit the conditions of travelers with vision difficulties.

We are always pleased to provide our passengers with a great travel experience time and time again, and we look forward to continuing to lead the way in innovation and creativity in this regard, and we are working with other content providers from Hollywood and around the world to expand the range of audio description options on the ice entertainment system digital widescreen